A “DEVOTED” elderly couple have been found dead in the gardens of their Bournemouth home.

The bodies of the man and woman, named locally as Roy and Glenys Smith, were found outside a block of flats in Manor Road around 8.30am on Tuesday.

It is believed they fell from their second-floor balcony, located on the third storey of the building.

The grim discovery was made by an assistant caretaker at the property, Crag Head, which houses 96 flats.

Vivian Phillips, who is on the building’s board of management, said residents had been left upset and shaken following the incident.

“They were a very well-liked couple indeed,” he said.

“They have been living here for a long time – quite a few years.

“The lady was in her 80s, and he was in his 90s, and they were well thought-of here.

“They were absolutely devoted to each other.”

Mr Phillips said the deaths of the couple, who had two sons and grandchildren living in Dorset, was “a great shock to everyone”.

He said: “Up until last summer, you would see them together going for a walk.

“But recently, very unfortun-ately, they were more or less housebound. It is very sad indeed.”

The couple are believed to have originally come from Wales, and were said by one resident to have been “frail”.

Ward councillor Anne Filer said: “I’d like to send my deepest condolences to the family of the couple.

“It’s absolutely horrendous news and I’m very sad indeed to hear it.”

A spokesperson from Dorset Police said: “Officers were called at around 8.30am on Tuesday, December 3 2013, to a report of a man and a woman aged in their eighties and nineties having been found deceased outside a block of flats along Manor Road in Bournemouth.

“Officers attended along with an ambulance crew.

“There are no suspicious circumstances and the coroner has been made aware. Next of kin have been informed.”